Taner Akçam
Taner Akçam | |
|---|---|
Akçam in Toronto, 2013 | |
| Born | 1953 (age 72) Ölçek, Ardahan Province, Turkey |
| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | Middle East Technical University |
| Occupation | Historian |
| Known for | Discussion of Armenian genocide, 1977 imprisonment |
Altuğ Taner Akçam or Tanner Aktscham is a German-Turkish historian, sociologist and author. He is one of the first Turkish academics to acknowledge and discuss openly the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Turkish government in 1915.
Taner Akçam was born in Ardahan, Turkey in 1953. He graduated from the department of administrative sciences of Middle East Technical University. After 1973, he joined left-wing political groups such as ODTÜ-DER and ADYÖD. In 1975, he was politically persecuted for his work on Armenian and Kurdish history. He was arrested in 1976 and convicted with 9 years prison sentence. On 12 May 1977, he escaped from the prison and moved to Germany. He lived in Germany between 1978 and 1995. He received his PhD in 1995 at University of Hannover. After he became a professor, Akçam worked in University of Minesotta and Clark University in United States.
Research
Taner Akçam worked on the history of Ottoman Armenians. He researched deportation law and 1919 Istanbul trials. According to him and the historic consensus, what happened to Armenians meets the legal definition of genocide.
Akçam worked in the Ottoman archives and found many documents.Examples of those documents are the Andonian documents,[1] the memoirs of Sarkis Torosyan,[2][3] a telegram from Talat Pasha,[4] and the court documents of 1919.[5]
The telegraph from Talat Pasha
In his 2011 book, The Young Turks' Crimes Against Humanity, Taner Akçam cited a telegraph from Talat Pasha. In the telegraph dated 29 August 1915, Talat Pasha stated that "The Armenian issue in Eastern provinces has been resolved." Akçam has said that this proved the "genocidal intent" of the Ottoman government.
Memoirs of Sarkis Torossian
Between 2013 and 2017, Taner Akçam published disputed articles about the memoirs of Sarkis Torosyan.
Ayhan Aktar, a Turkish academician, published in Turkish the memoirs of Sarkis Torossian in 2012. The memoir is about the story of an Ottoman Armenian soldier. In the story, the soldier fights for the Ottoman Empire during First World War. He is brilliant and earns a military reward. However, he changes sides when his family is killed by the government.
References
- ↑ Lütem, Ömer Engin and Yiğit Alpogan. “Review Essay: Killing Orders: Talat Pasha’s Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide.” Review of Armenian Studies, Issue 37 (2018).
- ↑ Eldem, Edhem (2017-04-03). "A shameful debate? A critical reassessment of the 'Torossian debate'". Journal of Genocide Research. 19 (2): 258–273. doi:10.1080/14623528.2016.1262495. ISSN 1462-3528.
- ↑ Erdem, Hakan (2012). Gerçek ile Kurmaca Arasında Torosyan'ın Acayip Hikayesi [Between Authenticity and Fiction: The Awkward Story of Torosyan] (in Turkish). Turkey: Doğan Kitap. ISBN 9786050911954.
- ↑ Özdemir, Hikmet; Sarınay, Yusuf (2007). Türk Ermeni İhtilafı Belgeler. Ankara: TBMM. p. 235.
- ↑ Şahin, Erman (2008). "Review Essay: A Scrutiny of Akçam's Version of History and the Armenian Genocide". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 28 (2): 303–319. doi:10.1080/13602000802303235. ISSN 1360-2004.